Against a backdrop of majestic, deep red and dark blue rock formations stands a woman in a dress that seems to reflect the colors of her surroundings. The bright, cheerful blue of her socks immediately catches the eye. In a second image, the same woman holds her arms above her head and forms a triangle: An attempt to become a mountain.

In her performative photographs, Finnish artist Emma Sarpaniemi repeatedly stages herself in surprising new ways. Unusual clothing, landscapes, and strange-looking objects form the inspiration and equipment for her humorous self-portraits. Absurd and comical constellations that make viewers smile and sometimes even laugh out loud are Emma Sarpaniemi‘s trademark: wearing a flowery sauna hat, she invites viewers to negotiations (Neuvottelut) in a paddock with a grim expression; with green bushes on her knees and head, she transforms herself into a Buxus Girl; In the middle of a snowy wasteland, she looks out from the roof of a small play tent that looks like a supermarket. The title: The Supermarket Is Open Regardless of the Different Weather Conditions.

Like a snake shedding its skin, Emma Sarpaniemi changes her outer shell and slips into costumes, props, and rooms. Although the artist‘s disguises, role-playing games, and toys may always subtly evoke childhood experiences, the images are far more than just childish, naive fun in their profundity and thoughtfulness. What remains, however, might be a long-lost feeling of early youth, when crazy antics and experiments seemed more socially acceptable and when one came closer to one‘s identity by trying things out and slipping into different roles. Emma Sarpaniemi takes her audience into a surreal world full of fantasy, where conventions and oneself do not have to be taken too seriously and where one is allowed to feel and be many things—Margot or Chris, and sometimes melancholic or sad. Not everything has to be role-playing, as there is the possibility that more than just one side of a person is being revealed here. How many sides does a person really have, do we all have?

The artist repeatedly subverts cultural clichés and gender-specific expectations in a provocative, ironic, and uninhibited manner, using sexualized innuendo and double entendres—whether in the jacket of a circus director (Tirehtöörin Täysikuu – The Director‘s Full Moon) with open trousers, a gigantic fabric pencil in the crotch (Ohjus – Rocket) or a rolling pin on her bare buttocks (kaulimela suoraksi – i.e.: getting down to business). In some of her more recent works, such as Toukan Kanto (Carrying the Caterpillar), Emma Sarpaniemi uses colored passe-partouts with cut-out shapes in the center. The artist and her piggyback-carried fabric caterpillar appear to be inside the pear, and viewers are granted a surprising glimpse through the keyhole at the unusual team. The French Girl (Series III), with a baguette peeking out cheekily and suggestively from the artist‘s crotch, appears in a passe-partout with an apple silhouette—a cheeky allusion to biblical temptation. For her work Smart Bike, Emma Sarpaniemi reinforces the voyeurism evoked in her audience with a specially crafted wooden frame: the viewer‘s gaze falls into the interior of a house where the artist sits on an exercise bike wearing stiletto heels, bare legs, a blouse, and a soccer hat. In a wooden hut reminiscent of a witch‘s house, she washes not only the tomatoes in a tomato bath (Tomaattikylpy), but also her feet.  

In her portraits, Emma Sarpaniemi clearly appears not only as the subject, but also as the creator and director of her own staging. She always deliberately holds the camera in plain view for everyone to see and determines what we see of her. Despite her great lightness, she subtly and sensitively creates situations that are touching and make us curious about the background of the images. Viewers are encouraged to look closely, wanting to understand what is going on, and to discover what the artist evokes in them: empathy and emotions, but also stories and interpretations that unfold differently in the minds of the audience each time. Almost anything seems possible. Why not try to become a mountain?

Emma Sarpaniemi (b.1993) is based in Helsinki. In her practice, she explores womanhood and definitions of femininity through performative self-portraits. For her, self-portraiture is a playground, a realm for exploring representation and resisting conventions of the gaze. Collaboration and collectivity hold an important role in her work. Emma Sarpaniemi has received a BA in photography from The Royal Academy of Art (KABK) The Hague in 2019. Her work has been exhibited in galleries, museums, and festivals throughout Europe, including Les Rencontres d’Arles, Athens Photo Festival, The Finnish Museum of Photography, Turku Art Museum, Museum Folkwang, and Miettinen Collection. The artist’s works are included in the collections of The Finnish Museum of Photography, HAM Helsinki Art Museum, Les Rencontres d’Arles, Turku Art Museum, The Finnish State Art Deposit Collection, Jenny and Antti Wihuri Foundation Collection, Museum Folkwang, Miettinen Collection, Heino Art Foundation, and private collections in Finland, Germany, The Netherlands, and Switzerland.

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